I agree with your findings. My d800 also prefers to overexpose a scene, which is odd consider that the crazy dynamic range is in the shadows.

However, with the samples you posted I think you pretty much got what you asked for. Shooting a black car, the camera sees black and purposefully tries to make it grey. For a black car filling most of the frame, I would know to tell the camera -1eV at least.

For the shot of the bushes, it's a similar thing. I think the green (i.e. the majority of the scene) is exposed correctly, and the only blown bits are the bits of sky coming through, which is to be expected. You'd need some sort of HDR to manage all of that dynamic range within a single shot.

Personally, I don't mind blown highlights if my subject is exposed how I want it. But if you would prefer to always be conservative and preserve highlights at all costs, you can set that as an option by reconfiguring the meter to underexpose (at least in the d800).